A family in Afghanistan has made the heartbreaking decision to sell their 4-year-old daughter to avoid starvation, reports claimed.
Since the Taliban emerged to power, the country has been thrown in a chaotic state, with thousands of Afghans abandoned their jobs and homes in search of a safer place.
The return of the militant group saw Afghanistan’s currency descend rapidly in value, and one Afghan father was seen in a marketplace trying to sell his daughter for a few hundred bucks.
According to The Times reporter Anthony Loyd, he was walking through the market in Kabul’s Jada-e Maiwand area when he saw the desperate father.
Mir Nazir, 38, a former police officer who lost his job in the city of Ghazni just before the Taliban took over the country, moved his family of seven to the capital to see if they could make some money at the busy marketplace.
Nazir was trying to sell his daughter for nearly $600, but he was getting lowballed by one buyer who offered just $230 for the 4-year-old girl.
“I would prefer to die than be reduced to selling my daughter,” Nazir told Loyd. “But my own death wouldn’t save anyone in my family.”
“Who would feed my other children?” Nazir told the reporter. “This isn’t about choice. It’s about desperation.”
“I received an offer from a shop owner, a man I knew who had no children,” Nazir continued. “He offered 20,000 afghanis ($230) for my daughter Safia to live with him and start working in his shop.”
“If I ever get the 20,000 afghanis to buy her back, he said I could,” Nazir said. “But I can’t sell my daughter for that low a price…we are still discussing.”
“She may have a better future working in a shop than staying with me, and the price may save my family.”
Nazir is thankful that the fighting is over, however, he’s worried that Afghans will face a new type of war: poverty.
It’s a painful reality facing many citizens in Afghanistan, with many of them feel like they have nowhere to turn now that the Taliban is in power.
The situation is expected to get worse in the coming weeks and months as international help dwindles.
The Australian reported that The World Bank halted sending aid to Afghanistan at the end of last month and the International Monetary Fund has also stopped nearly half a billion US dollars from being sent to the country.
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